Calle de Raimundo Lulio

Behind the Hispanicized name lies Ramon Llull, born in Palma de Mallorca around 1232. He lived as a courtier and troubadour until, past the age of thirty, a series of visions drew him away from worldly life. He became a Franciscan tertiary and devoted the rest of his days to a single obsession: to convert the Muslims of the Mediterranean to Christianity through words rather than the sword. For that mission he learned Arabic, founded a language school for preachers in Mallorca, and wrote more than two hundred works on theology, philosophy, logic, and medicine. He composed much of it in Catalan, which earned him the title of father of that literary language. His combinatorial “Art,” a method for deducing truths by linking concepts, fascinated thinkers like Leibniz centuries later. He died old around 1315, according to tradition stoned in Tunis after preaching before a hostile crowd. The street, a modern opening in the Chamberí expansion, drops from the Plaza de Olavide to the Calle de Santa Engracia.